Got Talent producer Fremantle saw its revenues fall 9.4%, with parent RTL Group attributing the drop to challenges in key entertainment markets.
Fremantle posted full-year 2025 revenue of €2.03B ($2.36B), compared with €2.24B in 2024. “This was mainly due to lower revenue from the entertainment business, especially in the U.S. and the UK,” said RTL. Declines in the U.S. have previously been cited as hampering growth.
Fremantle was also one of two RTL units impacted by “significant negative special items.” The Fremantle impairment cost RTL €125M, while an RTL Deutschland hit came in €201M. This impacted RTL Group’s overall revenue for the year, which was €1.08B, mainly thanks to selling RTL Nederland.
Fremantle makes the likes of Got Talent, Family Feud and Jeopardy!. It is competing in an international production and distribution market that is currently witnessing Paramount acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery and Banijay merging with All3Media.
Overall, Bertelsmann-owned RTL posted revenue of €6B, down 3.8%, and adjusted EBITA of €661M, with streaming costs down from €90M to €47M. The streaming biz, which saw revenues rise 26% to €509M, is nearing breakeven.
The fall in adjusted EBITA from €721M in 2024 was “mainly due to lower profit contributions from the Group’s broadcasting businesses, partly offset by significantly lower streaming start-up losses,” said RTL.
“We are accelerating our transformation and positioning RTL Group for sustainable profit growth,” said Thomas Rabe, CEO of RTL Group. “The market environment in 2025 remained challenging, with a significant decline of TV advertising and an even faster shift from linear TV to streaming. Against this backdrop, RTL Group further accelerated its transformation by reallocating resources to streaming, combined with comprehensive cost reductions across our main businesses.”
RTL, which is the process of acquiring Sky Deutschland, is forecasting full-year 2026 adjusted EBITA of €725M, with a medium-term adjusted EBITA target of €1B confirmed.
